Cystic Fibrosis Essay

While cystic fibrosis (CF) is not a new disease, there is still a lot to learn about it. In 1938 a pathologist, Dr Dorothy Andersen, provided the first clear description of cystic fibrosis. Before this time there had been reports of people that had the symptoms of someone with CF. During the seventeenth century children with the symptoms of CF were thought to be bewitched and their life expectancy was very short. Dr Dorothy Andersen gave this disease its name because cystic fibrosis refers to the scarring that is found on the pancreas. People with CF also have associated diseases like salt-loss syndrome, obstructive azoospermia, and gastrointestinal abnormalities. CF is inherited from one’s parents, making it a genetic disease. CF is caused by mutations in a certain gene that produces the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. This gene was first discovered in 1989 on chromosome pair 7. Cystic fibrosis is a recessive disease meaning both parents have to be a carrier. Whenever two CF carriers have a child together, there’s a 1 in 4 chance that their child will inherit the CF mutation. Although CF produces coughing it cannot be transmitted any other way than hereditary.
Youth with CF also deal with more health risk behavior. These risk factors include smoking daily, using cannabis, and performing antisocial or violent acts. These risk factors usually come in clusters and increase in age. Many factors contribute to this behavior like age, gender, academic track, and parents' education level, all differences except alcohol misuse remained significant. People with CF more likely to be depressed, and more likely to rate their health as poor. The climate can also put a person with CF under more stress if ...

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...l drugs in development for CF. There are multiple clinical trials that CF patients can take part in and help with the advancement in treatments for this disease. One clinical trial that was completed to test a new way inhaled antibiotics could be made for people who have CF and a lung infection caused by pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antibiotic drug (Amikacin) was made by wrapping the drug with liposomes. The lipsomes were thought to help the antibiotic get into the mucus to kill pseudomonas aeruginosa, and also slow down how quickly the Amikacin leaves the lung. The trial results for this trial have not been completed yet. To the average CF patients their treatment,medication and other things cost thousands of dollars yearly. Recent estimates show an excess of $40,000 per year in direct medical costs and $9,000 per year in secondary costs per cystic fibrosis patient.